S-Video blues - Help from my team

[elizabeth]

I need help from my TEAM OF EXPERTS (that's all of you folks!). I sometimes use ProShow Gold to turn my images into a video format to share with others. I have become so frustrated with the incompatibility of dvds (+R, -R) and the various machines i try to show them on that i decided to try to go straight from the laptop to the T.V.

I have an S-Video cable from computer to S-Video input on the TV; have set TV channel to Aux (tried both 1 and 2); have toggled the computer to S-Video output jack (on mine it is Fn/F11) - and nothing happens. I have tried the same to the S-Video input on the dvd player that is attached to the TV (the dvd hook-up to the TV is good. I watched a video last night!)

The guy in the Radio Shack where I bought the S-Video cable said first that i needed to put the TV on Aux:S-Video (it doesn't have such a channel). Then he said I needed a VGA cable (first he said 'instead of the S-Video cable, then he said 'along with the S-Video cable). I told him I wouldn't go that route until I consulted with my TEAM OF EXPERTS.

It may be time to go back to getting double prints at Costco!

thanks in advance for any guidance. elizabeth

[lexcell]

Hi Elizabeth,

I don't profess to knowing the answer to this question but, I did a search and found several references to an adapter called a VGA to TV out converter S Video + 3 RCA cable adapter. It uses the VGA connection on your computer and plugs into the S-Vidoe and/or the RCA plugs on your TV. It makes sense to me that it would work. I use the same VGA connection for connecting to a projector.

Here's a link to one I found on ebay so you can see what they look like
http://item.express.ebay.com/Computers-Networking_Computer-Accessories__NEW-VGA-to-TV-OUT-Converter-S-Video-3-RCA-Cable-Adapter_W0QQitemZ290201523664QQihZ019QQddnZCompute rsQ20Q26Q20NetworkingQQadnZComputerQ20AccessoriesQ QddiZ1192QQadiZ268QQcmdZExpressItem


Anyone else have some ideas???

[elizabeth]

thanks Laurie. I had a look. So would you plug the VGA into the computer, plug an S-Video cable into the S-Video plug of this cable and also into the S-video In on the TV. If you do that, do you ignore the A-V (red/white/yellow) components of this cable.

And it seems like there are two versions on the web-page. One has the r/w/y (guess that includes audio) and the other has only the Y (guess that is only the video). As you can tell I am NOT a skilled cable person!

I guess this would totally by-pass the S-Video Out jack on the computer, right?

Thanks a lot for your help and ideas on this. elizabeth

[elizabeth]

Success! Well, this has been a learning experience. Laurie's help above put me on to doing other searches for set-up options. after much fiddling, it seemed like the way i had it set should be right. So I called the computer support folks. Turns out that there is a problem with the software associated with the Fn/F11 toggle function. He said he has seen it before. The connections were there and correct, but I couldn't turn it on. He did give me a work-around and as I type I am watching it on the TV screen.

Laurie was also on the right track. He confirmed that if I use a VGA out of the computer + the adaptor the Laurie identified and input it into the TV either via the S-Video input or the RCA inputs, it should work too. It would toggle on/off using the 'out to monitor' key(s).

thanks again for your help, Laurie. elizabeth